consider it a good thing to have some experience with something before commenting on it.
Not really. I think Ebola is a terrible thing.
YOU DONT NO THAT YOU NEVER HAD EBOLA SO SHUT UP YOUR JUST A SHILL FOR BIG HEALTH!!1!!ONE!
The importance of direct personal experience as a qualification for an informed opinion seems to me to be based on the rather common, but rather stupid, idea that predictions made by experts based on theory are somehow valueless in the face of poorly remembered unrecorded observations by people who had no idea what was happening and have even less clue about the theoretical underpinnings of the events that they experienced.
I was once informed that there are seven states in Australia. I pointed out that there were six, and was told that there must be seven, because the seven points of the
federation star represent the seven states. I pointed out that there are six, and that the seven points of the federation star represent the six states, plus one point for the three territories. I listed the six states, and asked what was the 'missing' seventh state. I was told that as I wasn't born in Australia, and my interlocutor was, she knew better than me, and that I should try listening more, because I might learn something. The suggestion that we consult a map, or the Internet, to settle the question definitively was considered by her to be a deep personal insult. *
Such is the epistemology of the 'personal experience is better than knowledge' brigade. It's yet another failed methodology that attempts to bypass the scientific method while seeking facts - And like many such failed methodologies (divine revelation being the obvious one), it remains hugely popular, and criticism of it is often treated as a personal attack.
It is a good thing to have
knowledge of something before commenting on it. No
experience necessary.
* Note that this anecdote serves to demonstrate that I have direct personal experience of people using direct personal experience as though it were an acceptable form of evidence, or path to the truth; So if anyone thinks that it is, then they must also now accept that I am qualified to comment on it.